Aber towards Aber (but nowhere near Wales)

The boat inside us on the pontoon said yesterday that they were thinking of going at 08:00, so we were up and ready, but no one appeared until nearly nine. They then reported they would not leave for another hour, so Julian and I went for a walk to the village to buy milk and bread. It felt good to stretch our legs a bit.

Once back at Robinetta 45 minutes later, the small boat that had rafted outside us had gone, and our inside neighbours were obviously ready too. We cast off as soon as the engine had warmed up, and let them get away.

What we should have done is tied up on another part of the pontoon (which was now mostly empty) and done some in depth passage planning. Instead we just headed out of L'Aber Ildut, knowing we were way too early for the north going tide.

Once we were clear of the harbour approaches the next three hours were rather unpleasant. The inside (any possibly calmer) route was closed to us, because the tide funnelling through it would be too strong to make any head way, so we had to go round the outside of all the off lying dangers which added miles to the route.

Swell on the inshore rocks

The swell rolled in from port, the tide pushed against us at nearly 2 knots. What little wind there was came from dead astern. Robinetta rolled horrendously, and we had to get the sail down as there was not enough wind to hold it still against the swell... Julian could not take the smell of the diesel exhaust, so I did most of the helming while he stayed below and did some work on the new mount for the fuel shut off cable.

No other boats were going the same way as us, but at least 50 were racing in the other direction, using the tide and wind effectively. It made our plodding progress seem even slower.

As we got closer to the Portsall cardinal buoy the swell wavelength shortened, and the swell was “complemented” by waves raised by the light wind over tide. The result was not quite overfalls, but it made sense to me to steer clear of the areas of seabed that were marked as shallower. As a result we went almost all the way to the buoy before changing course to head towards L’Aberwrac’h.

About quarter of an hour later I noticed that the swell had decreased. I could see it breaking on the rocks to port, and the reefs there were taking the worse of it. It had also settled back into a steady pattern, so much easier to deal with. Even better, the breeze was on the stern quarter, rather than directly aft, and we could see it in the courtesy flags and burgee. It was still very light, but Julian is always desperate to sail so we got the main up. The swell still threatened to gybe it so I asked for a preventer and Julian was just about to rig it when his phone rang. It was a work query, but they were happy to call back in 5 minutes.

With the preventer rigged and jib flying I could make a good course steering directly for Ile Vierge lighthouse without the use of the engine. As soon as I suggested this to Julian he turned the engine off. We were still making about 2½ knots, the same speed we had been making all day. He took his phone call, then the helm, to give me a rest as I had been helming most of the day.

We ended up having a rather delightful sail, nearly all the way to the marina at L’Aberwrac’h. Julian did not want to stop sailing, so we decided to go up river to Paluden. That would put the wind directly behind us, and the risk of gybing constantly in an unknown river seemed unacceptable. Julian proposed lowering the main, and going up on foresails, so we went head to wind to get the main down, then turned back and were blown up river with the tide at a relaxed 3-4 knots.

Sailing always feels better than motor, and it was simple to tack the jib whenever we needed to. We were looking for the dumbell moorings that the Cruising Association Almanack gives as being available to visitors, but when we finally found them they were a bit daunting. We went round the trot a couple of times, looking for the right place, but when we picked our spot and went along side actually mooring to them seemed very complicated (although the tide held us there very solidly while we thought what to do). 

Robinetta on the correct mooring!

A man shouted to us from the shore. Apparently these were not the right moorings; as visitors we should be taking one of the four swinging moorings slightly further up river. We extricated ourselves with difficulty, having to cast Worm off as she got caught up in the mooring lines. Luckily she came to rest against buoy on the other side of the trot and we motored round and picked her up. The man on the shore shouted again, probably thinking we were trying to moor up on the dumbells again!

The view upriver from the mooring

Once we were where we should be, on a swinging mooring rated for 8 tonnes, Paluden turned out to be a lovely spot. We paid our mooring fee, then ate on board before going for a walk to the nearest town in the evening. A very pleasant end to a trying day.

A fine sail from Douarnenez

Alison had looked at the weather forecast for today with Piers on Carlotta and was worried about the swell left over from the storm. The forecast was for 3m but it only dropped a little over the next couple of days while the wind dropped a lot. That would leave us with an old sea with no wind to steady us. So I wanted to poke our nose out and see what it was like. We could divert to Morgat or Camaret if it got bad.

We got out of Port Rhu and moored up at Treboul to pay and buy bread and then we were off. One reef and the small jib. It worked well for a while and we were in good company!

Les Vieux Moines with St Mathieu lighthouses beyond

The wind slackened and we shook out the reef and then it died. The engine went on for 15 minutes and then the wind came back. The swell increased past the Cap de la Chevre but was long and easy.

We hit the entrance to the Chenal du Four bang on time to carry the tide all the way to L'Aber Wrac'h.

The wind eased even more and we changed up to the big jib. The sailing was a delight.

Theta in the Chenal du Four

We were not alone going through the Chenal, but most of the boats passed us, as normal!


Around 16:00 through the Chenal du Four proper with 16 miles to go Alison said she was tired and would like to go into Aber Ilduit. I was assuming we would carry on but it did make sense. I could cook dinner on a mooring more easily than at sea. We thought we were past the strongest tides and could carry on in the morning and have two shorter days.

The little marina in Ilduit now has a visitors pontoon and we ended up in the middle of a raft of three with a friendy French modern boat inside and a lovely little plywood gaffer outside. We bought a replacement control cable for the engine, cooked, showered and charged the laptops. A very pleasant evening.

I should mention that this was a scheduled work day for me but as it was the last good day of wind in the forecast we sailed. I had three meetings by phone and caught up with emails on passage and then later in the evening. There is a bit more I need to do but it can be spread through the week.

Bad Weather

After three says of lovely blue sky and plenty of wind for racing the forecast for Saturday night and Sunday looked dire. Wind SW force 6 gusting 8, with torrential rain.

Julian and I walked over to Treboul on Saturday morning and had a talk to the Capitanerie about taking refuge in Port Rhu. He had a look round and found Robinetta a berth well inside the harbour. A lot of the boats wanted to do the same, and space was at a premium but being small is an advantage when space is tight.

With the evening sorted out we went back to Rosmeur and I rowed Julian across to Kett with the new sternlight on the old mount. Once that was fixed I rowed to see Sheerwater, with some charts. They were planning to stay where they were and brave the weather.

We released Robinetta's mooring at 16:05, and motored towards Treboul with the stay sail up, but the sail cover on the main. All the official racing had been cancelled but the big boats were still out, entertaining the crowds. The pilot cutters had also decided to have an unofficial race, well away from the quay side.

The wind was pretty strong, and just the staysail gave us 1.5 knots. There was very little swell, since Douarnenez Bay is well sheltered from the South West.

For a change we headed for the Passe du Guet, rather than round Ille de Tristan, which gave us a much shorter trip, and we were securely moored in Port Rhu by 16:55. Our berth was well away from the visitor pontoon, with space for Worm ahead of us.

We spent two nights there, while the gale blew through. Sunday at Rosmeur was pretty much a wash out; the stages were taken down and the musicians squeezed into the bar. We ate dinner in a Creperie, courtesy of Philip and Tanuja from Sheerwater. Our first meal away from Robinetta or the festival site since we got back to France! They reported that the moorings had not been bad at all in the end, but we were glad to be in Port Rhu.

Douarnenez day 3, dragging anchors and racing

I woke at 05:00, feeling uneasy. It was only half an hour until high water, and when we anchored last night the depth gauge was not working. The charts said we were in 2 m of water, which meant 7m at high water, but we had no easy way to check. I went into the cockpit to have a look and we were definitely closer to one of the yachts, Kett of Littlehampton. Julian let out some more chain and and we checked our position on the chartplotter. It looked as though we were still in place, so we went back to bed.

We went ashore to shop and for the race briefing. I had a coffee and sat on the sea wall waiting for the briefing, and Julian glanced over and saw that Robinetta was now almost touching Kett. Abandoning the race briefing we headed back to Robinetta via the taxi boats as quickly as we could.

The moorings supervisor boat was alongside Robinetta, trying to hold her off Kett, and we jumped on board and got the engine on, then motored clear.  Looking at the chart plotter we were pretty sure that it was Kett that was dragging her anchor, not us, but our bowsprit had shattered Kett’s stern light whoever was at fault.


Julian pulled up the anchor, and we headed off to re-anchor. It was half eleven by now, and we had missed the race briefing, so I rowed Julian back over to Kett to see if he could help sort the stern light. I then rowed back to Robinetta and stayed on anchor watch. We had not had time to check the anchor was holding before leaving her so it seemed stupid to abandon her. Julian got a taxi boat then walked to the chandlers in Treboul to buy a new light. The man off Kett went with him. It turned out that the skipper was in hospital in Douarnenez, and having had a little time to think he realised the dragging might not have been our fault....

I started preparing Robinetta for the race. Julian had handed in the form saying we intended to join in last night, but we knew very little about it. Julian phoned, telling me that the chandlers had closed for lunch, and asked me to talk to the organisers to find out details, so I did. It turned out that the start had been moved forward, to 13:30. I watched Sheerwater sail past Robinetta’s stern as I waited anxiously for Julian’s return.

Sheerwater

Julian appeared in a taxi boat at 13:15. By then I already had the engine on and was hauling up the anchor. As race starts go we have had better, but helped by the fact that they moved the start even earlier on the fly, so we still had the engine on and the main only half raised when the three minute gun went.

We crossed the line last, and stayed there. This was not such a bad thing since we did not know what the course was.... We had up the no 1 jib and needed it, since the wind was light close in, although better by the turning buoy. It rained quite hard for about ten minutes, making us use our oily jackets for the first time in a while.

The finish was interesting to say the least. It looked as though everything had been moved earlier to make time for Greyhound and Recouverance to have a mock battle right by the finish line. They are BIG boats, sailing at close quarters and doing a public demonstration, and were not going to get out of the way of the last boat in a little boat race.... We avoided Greyhound by putting in an extra tack, but had to start the engine to get out of Recouverance’s way.

Once the race was over we headed back to the moorings. It was nearly 15:00, and we were starving! Luckily our initial mooring was free again, so we picked it up and had lunch in the cockpit before anything else. Julian felt really tired after the disturbed night and active morning, so he had a sleep while I got the sails sorted and tidied up the boat.

Dragging moorings

After the race I rowed Worm over to the raft of boats that included Corncockle and Carlotta for an OGA drinks gathering. In the end there were four quite heavy boats on one mooring, and it began to drag, so the party broke up quite abruptly.

On rowing back to Robinetta I saw that the mooring ahead of us now had three heavy boats on it. They looked a lot closer to Robinetta than when we left, so Julian got the bowsprit in. Within five minutes the boats had drifted even closer, so we dropped the mooring, and went to anchor Robinetta clear of other boats before heading ashore to eat.

Douarnenez Day 2

Found out last night we are nominally in the 'small traditional pleasure boats' class which races tomorrow so we have a free-ish day today. Met with Solent & SW gaffers and arranged to meet on their raft at 6pm tonight.

Cine Mara

Ariana, Corncockle and Carlotta

Fancied a sail and went out to watch the race. Some nice photo opportunities.

Greyhound

Rose of Argyll

Gwenili

La Cancalaise

La Recouvrance

Douranenez Day 1

Headed over for breakfast at the festival and spent most of the day pottering about. Met several people we knew and a few new people and spent some time investigating Gwenili's VHF problems. Everything works so I think they have a bad antenna limiting the range.